Guido Vranken discovered that FreeRADIUS, an open source implementation of RADIUS, the IETF protocol for AAA (Authorisation, Authentication, and Accounting), did not properly handle memory when processing packets. This would allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service by application crash, or potentially execute arbitrary code.

For Debian 7 'Wheezy', these problems have been fixed in version 2.1.12+dfsg-1.2+deb7u2.

We recommend that you upgrade your freeradius packages.

NOTE: Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the DLA security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

An update for freeradius is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

FreeRADIUS is a high-performance and highly configurable free Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) server, designed to allow centralized authentication and authorization for a network.

Security Fix(es) :

* An out-of-bounds write flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled certain attributes in request packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the FreeRADIUS server or to execute arbitrary code in the context of the FreeRADIUS server process by sending a specially crafted request packet. (CVE-2017-10979)

* An out-of-bounds read and write flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled RADIUS packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the FreeRADIUS server by sending a specially crafted RADIUS packet. (CVE-2017-10978)

* Multiple memory leak flaws were found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled decoding of DHCP packets. A remote attacker could use these flaws to cause the FreeRADIUS server to consume an increasing amount of memory resources over time, possibly leading to a crash due to memory exhaustion, by sending specially crafted DHCP packets.
(CVE-2017-10980, CVE-2017-10981)

* Multiple out-of-bounds read flaws were found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled decoding of DHCP packets. A remote attacker could use these flaws to crash the FreeRADIUS server by sending a specially crafted DHCP request. (CVE-2017-10982, CVE-2017-10983)

Red Hat would like to thank the FreeRADIUS project for reporting these issues. Upstream acknowledges Guido Vranken as the original reporter of these issues.

An update for freeradius is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

FreeRADIUS is a high-performance and highly configurable free Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) server, designed to allow centralized authentication and authorization for a network.

Security Fix(es) :

* An out-of-bounds write flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled certain attributes in request packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the FreeRADIUS server or to execute arbitrary code in the context of the FreeRADIUS server process by sending a specially crafted request packet. (CVE-2017-10979)

* An out-of-bounds read and write flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled RADIUS packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the FreeRADIUS server by sending a specially crafted RADIUS packet. (CVE-2017-10978)

* Multiple memory leak flaws were found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled decoding of DHCP packets. A remote attacker could use these flaws to cause the FreeRADIUS server to consume an increasing amount of memory resources over time, possibly leading to a crash due to memory exhaustion, by sending specially crafted DHCP packets.
(CVE-2017-10980, CVE-2017-10981)

* Multiple out-of-bounds read flaws were found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled decoding of DHCP packets. A remote attacker could use these flaws to crash the FreeRADIUS server by sending a specially crafted DHCP request. (CVE-2017-10982, CVE-2017-10983)

Red Hat would like to thank the FreeRADIUS project for reporting these issues. Upstream acknowledges Guido Vranken as the original reporter of these issues.

Note that Tenable Network Security has attempted to extract the preceding description block directly from the corresponding Red Hat security advisory. Virtuozzo provides no description for VZLSA advisories. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

The remote Oracle Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2017-1759 advisory.

    - Resolves: Bug#1469115 CVE-2017-10979 freeradius: Out-of-bounds write in                             rad_coalesce()
    - Resolves: Bug#1469118 CVE-2017-10978 freeradius: Out-of-bounds read/write                             due to improper output buffer size check in make_secret()
    - Resolves: Bug#1469120 CVE-2017-10980 freeradius: Memory leak in decode_tlv()
    - Resolves: Bug#1469122 CVE-2017-10981 freeradius: Memory leak in                             fr_dhcp_decode()
    - Resolves: Bug#1469124 CVE-2017-10982 freeradius: Out-of-bounds read in                             fr_dhcp_decode_options()

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Guido Vranken discovered that FreeRADIUS, an open source implementation of RADIUS, the IETF protocol for AAA (Authorisation, Authentication, and Accounting), did not properly handle memory when processing packets. This would allow a remote attacker to cause a denial-of-service by application crash, or potentially execute arbitrary code.

All those issues are covered by this single DSA, but it's worth noting that not all issues affect all releases :

  - CVE-2017-10978 and CVE-2017-10983 affect both jessie and     stretch;
  - CVE-2017-10979, CVE-2017-10980, CVE-2017-10981 and     CVE-2017-10982 affect only jessie;

  - CVE-2017-10984, CVE-2017-10985, CVE-2017-10986 and     CVE-2017-10987 affect only stretch.

The remote Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-3369-1 advisory.

    Guido Vranken discovered that FreeRADIUS incorrectly handled memory when decoding packets. A remote     attacker could use this issue to cause FreeRADIUS to crash or hang, resulting in a denial of service, or     possibly execute arbitrary code.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Out-of-bounds read in fr_dhcp_decode_options() :

An out-of-bounds read flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS server handles decoding of DHCP packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the FreeRADIUS server by sending a specially crafted DHCP request. (CVE-2017-10982)

Out-of-bounds read in fr_dhcp_decode() when decoding option 63 :

An out-of-bounds read flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled decoding of DHCP packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the FreeRADIUS server by sending a specially crafted DHCP request. (CVE-2017-10983)

Memory leak in decode_tlv() :

A memory leak flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS server handles decoding of DHCP packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to cause the FreeRADIUS server to consume an increasing amount of memory resources over time possibly leading to a crash due to memory exhaustion. (CVE-2017-10980)

Memory leak in fr_dhcp_decode() :

A memory leak flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS server handles decoding of DHCP packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to cause the FreeRADIUS server to consume an increasing amount of memory resources over time, possibly leading to a crash due to memory exhaustion, by sending specially crafted DHCP packets.
(CVE-2017-10981)

Out-of-bounds write in rad_coalesce() :

An out-of-bounds write flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled certain attributes in request packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the FreeRADIUS server or to execute arbitrary code in the context of the FreeRADIUS server process by sending a specially crafted request packet. (CVE-2017-10979)

Out-of-bounds read/write due to improper output buffer size check in make_secret() :

An out-of-bounds read and write flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS server handled RADIUS packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the FreeRADIUS server by sending a specially crafted RADIUS packet. (CVE-2017-10978)

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - An FR-GV-203 issue in FreeRADIUS 2.x before 2.2.10 allows DHCP - Memory leak in decode_tlv() and a     denial of service. (CVE-2017-10980)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

The remote NewStart CGSL host, running version MAIN 4.05, has freeradius packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities:

  - An out-of-bounds read flaw was found in the way     FreeRADIUS server handled decoding of DHCP packets. A     remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the     FreeRADIUS server by sending a specially crafted DHCP     request. (CVE-2017-10983)

  - An out-of-bounds write flaw was found in the way     FreeRADIUS server handled certain attributes in request     packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash     the FreeRADIUS server or to execute arbitrary code in     the context of the FreeRADIUS server process by sending     a specially crafted request packet. (CVE-2017-10979)

  - An out-of-bounds read and write flaw was found in the     way FreeRADIUS server handled RADIUS packets. A remote     attacker could use this flaw to crash the FreeRADIUS     server by sending a specially crafted RADIUS packet.
    (CVE-2017-10978)

  - A memory leak flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS     server handles decoding of DHCP packets. A remote     attacker could use this flaw to cause the FreeRADIUS     server to consume an increasing amount of memory     resources over time, possibly leading to a crash due to     memory exhaustion, by sending specially crafted DHCP     packets. (CVE-2017-10981)

  - An out-of-bounds read flaw was found in the way     FreeRADIUS server handles decoding of DHCP packets. A     remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the     FreeRADIUS server by sending a specially crafted DHCP     request. (CVE-2017-10982)

  - A memory leak flaw was found in the way FreeRADIUS     server handles decoding of DHCP packets. A remote     attacker could use this flaw to cause the FreeRADIUS     server to consume an increasing amount of memory     resources over time possibly leading to a crash due to     memory exhaustion. (CVE-2017-10980)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Security Fix(es) :

  - An out-of-bounds write flaw was found in the way     FreeRADIUS server handled certain attributes in request     packets. A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash     the FreeRADIUS server or to execute arbitrary code in     the context of the FreeRADIUS server process by sending     a specially crafted request packet. (CVE-2017-10979)

  - An out-of-bounds read and write flaw was found in the     way FreeRADIUS server handled RADIUS packets. A remote     attacker could use this flaw to crash the FreeRADIUS     server by sending a specially crafted RADIUS packet.
    (CVE-2017-10978)

  - Multiple memory leak flaws were found in the way     FreeRADIUS server handled decoding of DHCP packets. A     remote attacker could use these flaws to cause the     FreeRADIUS server to consume an increasing amount of     memory resources over time, possibly leading to a crash     due to memory exhaustion, by sending specially crafted     DHCP packets. (CVE-2017-10980, CVE-2017-10981)

  - Multiple out-of-bounds read flaws were found in the way     FreeRADIUS server handled decoding of DHCP packets. A     remote attacker could use these flaws to crash the     FreeRADIUS server by sending a specially crafted DHCP     request. (CVE-2017-10982, CVE-2017-10983)

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
102784	Debian DLA-1064-1 : freeradius security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	8/28/2017	11/25/2025	critical
101786	RHEL 6 : freeradius (RHSA-2017:1759)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	7/18/2017	12/10/2025	critical
119219	Virtuozzo 6 : freeradius / freeradius-krb5 / freeradius-ldap / etc (VZLSA-2017-1759)	Nessus	Virtuozzo Local Security Checks	11/27/2018	7/18/2024	critical
101798	Oracle Linux 6 : freeradius (ELSA-2017-1759)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/19/2017	10/22/2024	critical
102371	Debian DSA-3930-1 : freeradius - security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	8/11/2017	12/2/2025	critical
102033	Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS : FreeRADIUS vulnerabilities (USN-3369-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	7/28/2017	8/27/2024	critical
102180	Amazon Linux AMI : freeradius (ALAS-2017-865)	Nessus	Amazon Linux Local Security Checks	8/4/2017	12/4/2025	critical
220261	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2017-10980	Nessus	Misc.	3/4/2025	4/28/2025	high
101823	CentOS 6 : freeradius (CESA-2017:1759)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	7/20/2017	1/4/2021	critical
127341	NewStart CGSL MAIN 4.05 : freeradius Multiple Vulnerabilities (NS-SA-2019-0107)	Nessus	NewStart CGSL Local Security Checks	8/12/2019	1/14/2021	critical
101800	Scientific Linux Security Update : freeradius on SL6.x i386/x86_64 (20170718)	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	7/19/2017	12/10/2025	critical

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